Friday, January 16, 2009

Iron Chef - Battle Chocolate

In the preparation for Iron Chef Battle Chocolate, my mind was swimming with possibilities, questions, outlandish combinations. . . all in the hopes that something would grab me and scream, "YES! I WILL BE DELICIOUS!"First I thought beef tenderloin with a dark chocolate/coffee glaze with lots of pepper would work.Then I saw a duck breast with a cassis sauce that I thought could easily blossom with the addition of some chocolate.How about chocolate bbq sauce, on pork loin perhaps?A play on Moroccan flavors with a chocolate cinnamon dry rubbed lamb kebab with either a chocolatey couscous or savory chocolate dipping sauce?

I thought I was clear on dessert - my standard, ass kicking Chocolate Ganache Pie with Raspberry Coulis. Pros - I know it's awesome since I've made it several times. Cons - is it awesome enough for Iron Chef? There is some stiff competition this time around!Then I remembered back to my Chantico love affair of years past. What could I pair with drinking chocolate, hmmm. . . well something marshmallow graham crackery of course. But WHAT?! What little bite sized morsel can I make to go with the dark, rich, creamy drinking chocolate? What would Chantico be proud to be paired with and not feel justified in punishing me for? (side note - Chantico is my new favorite goddess; I'm stingy with my stuff too, and I thought that was because I'm an only child, but it's probably just my Mexican heritage). I wracked my brain trying to figure out the best way to combine the two things into an easy bite, and I think I decided upon homemade marshmallows (which I have never made) coated in graham cracker crumbs. Dear Chantico, wish me luck.

I find out Quinn might be playing with beef, so I scratch that off the list. That darn serial dater posted a Yelp search for where to buy duck so after I screamed at her I scratched that off too, since that was the one I was leaning toward.Could my beef or duck kick their beef or duck's asses? Possibly, but who wants duplicate dishes? I want VARIETY! I want NOVELTY! This is chocolate after all. How to decide? I need to shop in two hours! Maybe I'll take a little trip to Antonelli's and see what they have and let that guide me.

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I repost things on my blog rather than just linking to them because sometimes people go away. They take down their blogs, links break or become buried. . . and then what good am I to you? A repository of broken links? That is NOT what I want on my tombstone thanks very much. And so I repost; I try to be as diligent as possible with crediting the appropriate sources, but if something needs updating, just shoot me a message!